The End

The end of the trip. The van will be in Southampton on Monday, and need collecting once it has cleared customs and we've paid the bill for the agent this end.

Would we do it again? Yes, but not the same route, maybe ship to Australia and drive back via the countries we had originally intended to visit - Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Iran. That way we can clean the vehicle here before it goes into a shipping container. Can't see that we'll be doing this within the next ten years, so it will definitely be in a different vehicle. And there are so many other countries to visit in Europe, Africa, America.....

Other things we'd do differently: Travelling as a group has it's benefits, but probably a bigger group would work better. Just three vehicles meant we were always with the same people and when there was friction (which some of you spotted in my writing, but I thought I'd concealed!) there wasn't always space to get away. My trip to the Gambia 3 years ago was better in this respect.


Vehicle : We are very pleased with our choice of van. It met the criteria of enough room for two, fitted into a shipping container, was comfortable to drive/ride in for many hours every day, had the right level of fittings and, perhaps most importantly, it was reliable. Maybe the level of spares and tools taken was excessive, but that's a hindsight thing when you don't use them. There weren't too many countries that we could have found spares for it if we'd needed them so we'd probably take the same amount again.

There are a few more pictures to post once we've collected the van, and I'll probably compile some information on costs and other stuff over the next week or so.

Day 130

07/11/2009

Arrived safely at Heathrow at 05:13 having slept for a good deal of the 12:35 hour flight. Travelling West overnight must be the best way to avoid jetlag, as despite the 11 hour time difference, it actually felt like early morning. Train into London, tube to Waterloo and Train to Gillingham were non-eventful apart from me failing to pick up one of our train tickets from the ticket machine at Waterloo and having to buy another ticket - £36 - ouch.

The taxi journey from the station to home looked little different from how we remembered it. Home looks better than when we left - thanks Ali and Sian for hen sitting and hedge trimming, and George for decorating and grass cutting.

Tried to light the Rayburn when we got in, but no gas was flowing from the tank. Turned the fridge on but it's not getting cold. Immersion heater trips the fuse. It's good to be home!

Lat 51 10.07 N
Long 2 21.49 W
Town Witham Friary
Distance ++17503 km (flight distance - not sure about the train/taxi bits)

Day 129

06/11/2009

The last day in Australia. Seems an age since we left home heading for Dover, wondering if we'd even make it that far. Flight home at 15:40 via Kuala Lumpar, so it would have been easy to waste the morning. With this in mind we had booked a back stage tour of the Opera House last week when we booked the bridge climb, so were up at 05:00 to shower and then walk to the Opera House for 07:00.

The Opera House is undoubtedly an iconic building from the outside, and inside it's no less impressive. Five separate auditoriums which appear to be in almost constant use means there is always lots of activity below stairs. The limitations of the site (water on three sides) has meant the layout had to be carefully thought through for it to actually work. Built almost 40 years ago, it was well over budget and well over timescale, but as our guide said - who cares about that anymore. Australians are rightly proud of it.

On our walk back we called into the Mint Museum where the first coins were minted in Australia. They were gold sovereigns and half sovereigns as it was still using British currency 130 years ago.

Back to Claire's flat and a final pack of our cases ready to head to the airport. Flight to Kuala Lumpar was noteworthy for the proportion of time we flew over Australian soil - 4 of the 8 hours. It truly is a big country, with not much sign of habitation across most of it.

Kuala Lumpar is much like any other airport and we boarded the London flight on schedule, but then sat at the gate for an extra 40 minutes as the prevailing winds were in our favour and we would otherwise have been too early to land at Heathrow.

Town Kuala Lumpar
Distance ++6715 km (Sydney to Kuala Lumpar)

Day 128

05/11/2009

Visited the maritime museum that we have been walking past every day since we got here. Another where we thought 2 or 3 hours and ended up there for the day. Best bit was the sub, that was only de-commisioned 10 years ago. Quite cramped as you'd expect, but bearable. Beth didn't venture onboard but I think she'd have been OK once she'd got beyond the strange angle of the entry steps which took you down through one of the torpedo loading hatches.

Went out to eat in the evening to celebrate (?) the last night of our trip. Really looking forward to getting home now....

Town Sydney

Day 127

04/11/2009

Started the day at the fish market at 7:00 with some fresh bread and a kilo of tiger prawns, watching the world wake up. Weather has changed dramatically from the 36C and sunshine of yesterday to 18C and drizzle of this morning.

Back to Claire's flat for a hot shower and some warmer clothes then walk into the city centre and catch a ferry across the harbour to the zoo. Didn't expect to spend more than 2 or 3 hours there, but ended up there for the rest of the day. Highlight was seeing a platyus, and actually awake and swimming.

Evening was spent reading and chating to Michelle about New Zealand, and other places she's been.

Town Sydney

Day 126

03/11/2009

A good night's sleep in a normal bed and off to climb the Harbour Bridge that I booked last week. The guy who bought the 20 year franchise for this must be laughing as there were the maximum number of 14 in my group, each paying AU$198 (about £114) to be there, and groups were leaving every 10 minutes from 8:45 throughout the day.

Not all groups had 14 people but it's still a very nice earner.
It's actually a great experience and I only wish I had the franchise.

Took a harbour tour in the afternoon taking us around the outer harbour and back under the Harbour Bridge then up an observation tower to see the city from above. Watched a large cruise ship (Dawn Princess) pass under the bridge and leave the harbour bound for . . . we don't know where.

Claire's flat mate Michelle (a Kiwi) tells us the population of Sydney is the same as the entire population of New Zealand (about 4 million) which explains why we could only see buildings from the tower. Seems a bit crowded compared to the northern parts of Australia.

Town Sydney

Day 125

02/11/2009

Final driving day of the trip as we head into Sydney via a Koala sanctury which also had several other native Australian animals and birds most of which we hadn't seen in the wild. Got to stroke a Koala and also a Kangaroo!

Decided we had to drive across the Harbour Bridge which is a toll bridge with an almost unfathomable payment method. No cash booth just an electronic system that warns you of a $120 fine if you don't have an electronic tag or fail to pay within 48 hours. Paying via a mobile phone proved almost impossible as non of the automated options fitted our situation and the human option never picked up the phone. Will try the internet option tomorrow.

Arrived at a friend's (Clare's) flat around 12:30 to drop off our stuff as she has offered us space for 4 days and even moved out of her bedroom for us.

Dropped the van back at 2:30 and taxied back to Clare's for an evening of catching up on gossip. She lives about 20 minutes walk from the centre of Sydney so it's really handy.

Lat 33 52.10 S
Long 151 11.29 E
Town Sydney
Distance +5467 km

Day 124

01/11/2009

Having decided the Hunter Valley is good for wine and a few beers, and already having purchased as much as we can reasonably drink in our remaing time in Oz, we opted for a lazy day. Cooked breakfast, a bit of reading, washing some clothes and planning our remaining time here.

Later we sat by the pool and tried to store up enough warmth to see us through to next April.

Tomorrow we hand the rented van back and that seems an appropriate point to compare a more modern van to our own.

Being of later vintage it has up to date safety features like airbags and improved crash protection. Driving comfort isn't as good as the seat is slightly too low to support the front of my legs and there are no armrests. Aircon is fitted but we have never used it. Ventilation is not so good due to wind noise when the side windows are opened and no quarter lights, which seem to reduce the buffeting.

Engine is more powerful and more economical and combined with the 5 speed gearbox gives much more overlap of gears.

Layout overall isn't as good as our van. No access from front to rear (the engine is in the way) and a downstairs bed which needs assembling each night. The hightop gives useful storage space but at the expense of less stabillity on the road. And it won't fit in a shipping container.

The equipment fitted is mostly an improvment - larger sink and bigger fridge but the cooker is not as controlable. The fridge is 12 volt or mains, but being of a more efficient design will run for some time on the second battery (24 hours was no problem).

Having a mains hookup is a plus as we have a toaster and microwave (used once) and it will charge the second battery so we can stop for several days.

Ground clearance is not good so there would have been some underbody damage on the Kazachstan "roads". Tyres are inevitably road biased so would have needed swapping.

I don't know what it costs to buy a van like this but it has been good for three and a half weeks around Australia, but wouldn't be a good choice for an extended overland trip.

Town Cessnock